21st Century Skills are so last century! The new mantra, the next big thing, among educators who need a serious sounding phrase to rattle around in reports is ‘21st Century Skills’. I hear it often, almost always in some overlong, text-heavy, Powerpoint presentation at an educational conference, where collaboration, creativity and communication skills are in short supply. Thank god for wifi! But does this idee fixe bear scrutiny? In a nice piece of work by Stepahnie Otttenheijm, she asked (radical eh?) some youngsters what 21st C skills they thought they’d need. Collaboration & sharing Young people communicate and collaborate every few minutes – it’s an obsession. Communication Again, we live in the age of abundant communication. Problem solving Problem solving is a complex skill and there are serious techniques that you can learn to problem solve such as breakdown, root-cause analysis etc. Creativity Beware of big, abstract nouns. Critical thinking Digital literacy Conclusion
Five Tips for a Successful Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Training Program by Thomas Michael “ERP systems constantly change due to upgrades, additional features, or addition of new functionalities. In addition, knowledge leakage due to employee attrition can be as high as 25% in any given year. Consequently, ERP training is an ongoing business requirement and not a one-time event.” As if designing and deploying a comprehensive software training program isn’t challenging enough, creating such a program for an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system implementation provides its own unique and additional problems. Don’t let training be an after-thought Implementing and operating an ERP system can easily cost millions of dollars. Deploy various training delivery methods The most successful ERP training programs combine the best of traditional classroom training with state-of-the-art eLearning simulations. Each training delivery method is most appropriate for a specific stage in the training requirements lifecycle. Review training materials ahead of time Monitor progress closely
Learning in the 21st Century Means Adapting to Change Businesses talk about adapting to change quickly, but they don’t take advantage of it. When a practice is not producing results, it’s time to unlearn it. Organizations that don’t embrace new ways of operating and radically different approaches to corporate learning will not survive for three reasons: 1. We’re witnessing a dizzying rate of change. Business people are being overwhelmed by the pace of progress and the explosion of knowledge. 2. 3. Companies that fail to take these things into account are headed for the scrap heap. Change rips people out of their comfort zones, and the inertia that often follows is huge. Today’s prime directive is sharing control among all stakeholders — discern the underlying pattern and take action. Time cards were once a mainstay of industrial life. A quarter century ago, Stan Davis wrote in Future Perfect that the fundamentals of the universe, and therefore business, are time, space and matter.
The 20% Leadership Challenge Google engineers, for some time now, have been apportioned 20% of their time to focus on things they are passionate about. Google even makes mention of it in their job descriptions. It’s time for leaders, particularly senior leaders, to introduce this concept into their leadership workflow. But, there is a slight twist. I’m not proposing leaders spend 20% of their time to focus on things they are passionate about. No, that would be too easy. The 20% Leadership Challenge … spend twenty percent of your time on a weekly basis coaching, mentoring, listening, collaborating with and helping members of your direct team as well as their direct reports. Not in team meetings, operational check-ups or strategy sessions, but in 1-1 personal discussions. It doesn’t have to be everybody every week. But it has to be 20% of your time. It’s my personal thesis that this is one of the easiest methods in which to drive engagement, which drives performance, which then drives customer satisfaction.
Why Is Teacher Development Important?: Because Students Deserve the Best Teacher-preparation programs provide educators-to-be with the tools, mentors, and hands-on experience they'll need once they begin their career. Great teachers help create great students. In fact, research shows that an inspiring and informed teacher is the most important school-related factor influencing student achievement, so it is critical to pay close attention to how we train and support both new and experienced educators. VIDEO: Teacher-Preparation Overview: A Survey of Top Programs Running Time: 9 min. Teacher Preparation The best teacher-preparation programs emphasize subject-matter mastery and provide many opportunities for student teachers to spend time in real classrooms under the supervision of an experienced mentor. Teacher-Induction Programs Support for beginning teachers is often uneven and inadequate. Mentoring and coaching from veteran colleagues is critical to the successful development of a new teacher. Ongoing Professional Development
10 Strategies for Integrating Learning and Work (part 1) | gram consulting The goal of learning in the workplace is performance–individual and organizational. If we’ve learned nothing else in recent years, we’ve learned that learning is most effective when it is integrated with real work. Learning pundits encourage the this integration but don’t always offer practical strategies that busy learning professionals can to use to make it happen. How can we begin to truly reduce the number courses and catalogs in enterprise training and find ways to bring learning to the job? In a series of following posts I’ll share some practices and approaches that have worked for me. There is incredible variety in the business settings where we work, the jobs we support and the latitude we have to build our solutions. 1. Each of the 10 strategies on the list in the highlight box on the right, have helped me to improve performance through learning without pulling people way from the job for formal (classroom or e-learning) training. 1. 2. 3. Part 1: Part 2: Part 3: Part 4: Part 5:
10 Strategies for Integrating Learning and Work (part 2) | gram consulting In my last post I listed ten strategies for integrating learning with work. They are a combination of concepts and methods that build knowledge and bring learning into day to day activities and workflow. I discussed the first three strategies in Part 1. 1. 4. I’m a fan of Communities of Practice (CoP). CoP’s have been around for as long as human beings have learned and worked together. Communities among practitioners create a direct link between learning and performance, because the same people participate in communities of practice and in teams and business units. “Designing” Communities of Practice Can CoPs be “designed” or do they simply “emerge” from participants as they work together? Learning consultants cannot “design” the learning outcomes of a CoP; but conversely no CoP can fully design its own learning. Here is a CoP Design Guide I’ve found useful. Keeping Communities of Practice Alive 5. Ah, social media. Communities of Practice and Social Media at IBM Part 1: Part 2: Part 3:
10 Strategies for Integrating Learning and Work (part 3) | gram consulting This post continues the Ten Strategies for Integrating Learning and Work series. Last post I discussed communities of practice and social media, two strategies focused on collaboration and networks where learning and knowledge are a natural byproduct. This post shifts focus to how structured problem solving and Action Learning approaches can intimately wed learning with working. I’ll discuss strategies 6 and 7 from the list. Each uses problems and work tasks as the subject matter for learning, reflection and behaviour change. 1. 6. Continuous Improvement Frameworks seem to come and go in waves (TQM, Six-Sigma, Lean, process re-design and others). Continuous Improvement methods (at least those originating in Japan…and most do) are based on the concept of Kaizen. Kaizen methodology includes making changes, observing results, then adjusting and standardizing the improvements. Kaizen is essentially the Scientific Method built into jobs and workflow. Joiner again: 7. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Summary
Процесс внедрения системы дистанционного электронного обучения в компании Дистанционное обучение все чаще используется для развития персонала компаний. В России активная фаза его внедрения пришлась на 2006–2007 гг. В это время рынок автоматизированных систем предлагал интересные решения в данной области. Под термином «дистанционное обучение», как правило, понимаются именно электронные курсы, которые базируются на аппаратно-программном решении. Основу СДЭО создают следующие составляющие: 1. Рисунок1. 5. Система дистанционного электронного обучения решает следующие задачи: 1. 2. 3. 4. В разных программных продуктах модулей может быть меньше или больше. Опыт показывает, что целесообразно выбрать уже готовую LMS, тщательно проанализировав предложения рынка, а не разрабатывать ее самостоятельно. Первые два процесса идут практически параллельно. Этапы внедрения СДЭО От того, как будет внедрена СДЭО, зависит дальнейшее развитие электронного обучения в компании. Процесс внедрения следует разбить на несколько этапов: 1. Опишем каждый этап внедрения СДЭО детально. 1. 2.
Social Learning Strategies Checklist « Social Enterprise Blog Kevin D. Jones and I are doing a session at Training 2010 titled Defining Your Social Learning Strategy. As prep for this, we’ve put together a comprehensive checklist of Social Learning Strategy topics that learning professionals and executives should consider when thinking through their objectives and plans. Here is a link to the doc, but if you would prefer to read it in-line, the full body of the doc is below. Let me know what you think we missed and we’ll update it. In the event that you want to use this for your own initiatives, all we ask is that you adhere to the Creative Commons Share Alike license. Organizational adoption of social media as a comprehensive learning strategy is one part software rollout, one part transformational change, and one part large scale corporate initiative. Cultural Issues Related to Social LearningWhat do you want it to be? Openness vs. planning? Social Learning Approaches and MethodsWhat “kind” of Social Learning models are you pursuing? Codified?
8 Small Business Social Media Tips From the Pros Are you looking for some social media tips to grow your small business? We asked eight small business pros for their hottest social media tips. Here’s their advice for you to . #1: Show Them the “Real You” Ed Gandia Use Facebook to show prospects, clients and customers the “real you.” I love to cook, so I’ve been known to post pictures of my grilled masterpieces. Oh, and I know I’m going to ruffle a lot of feathers by saying this, I get more engagement by updating five times per week than five times per day. Ed occasionally shares personal stories on Facebook. Ed Gandia , founding partner, International Freelancers Academy. #2: Pick One Thing and Do It Really Well Nichole Kelly Small businesses are faced with having to prioritize their resources toward the activities that deliver the most impact. Being on 5 social networks and giving all of them half-effort will not generate results. Nichole Kelly , founder of Full Frontal ROI. #3: Turn Your Facebook Page Into a Lead-Generating Machine Next, .